Notre Dame stumbles in final seconds

Monday night, the rumbling that shook McGrath-Phillips Arena was the final 20 minutes of a 15-round Big East Conference women's basketball clash.

In the end, Felicia Chester's layup with 5.9 seconds left helped No. 12 DePaul derail No. 7 Notre Dame's hopes of a No. 2 seed in the Big East Tournament with a 70-69 victory.

Notre Dame (24-6 overall, 13-3 Big East), is the No. 3 seed and will open play at 8 p.m. EST on Sunday in the Big East Tournament in Hartford, Conn., in the same bracket as No. 6 seed Louisville. DePaul (26-5, 13-3), extended its home-court winning steak to 19 games. The Blue Demons tied Notre Dame for second in the Big East regular-season standings, but is the No. 2 seed thanks to the tie-breaker, head-to-head win.

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Chester, a 6-foot-3 forward, led DePaul with 20 points, 16 in the second half. Keisha Hampton scored 17.

Skylar Diggins, who ran into a roadblock driving for a potential game-winner and was knocked down with no call, led Notre Dame with 18 points.

"We were out of timeouts," Irish coach Muffet McGraw said of Notre Dame's last shot at pulling off a victory. "We had five seconds, which was plenty of time. Natalie (Novosel) had the ball. I thought she should have kept it and driven it to the basket. We have a play that Natalie runs one way and Skylar runs the other, and it would have been just as good with Natalie running it. She chose to give it to Skylar, which was fine.

"I think Skylar tried to dribble it through a crowd. .... I don't think she got fouled," McGraw said. "You have to get to the rim in that situation, and she wasn't able to. They did a nice job defensively. They got back in transition really well."

WOMEN'S BASKETBALLDePaul 70Notre Dame 69

DePaul forged a 66-61 lead with 1:49 left, but the Irish rallied. Diggins hit a free throw then forced a turnover, and Novosel hit a 3-pointer from the corner. Taylor Pikes scored inside for DePaul, and the Demons were up 68-65 with 59 seconds left.

Diggins hit a layup, and then Brittany Mallory stole the ball and passed to Novosel. Novosel fired a bullet pass to Peters on the fastbreak for a layup and a 69-68 Irish lead with 24 seconds left.

DePaul worked the ball into Chester, who bulled her way to the hoop for a layup.

"I was kind of in shock when it went in," Chester said of her game-winner. "It felt good to win in those last moments."

Diggins drove downcourt, but was knocked down in the lane and lost control the ball. DePaul gained possession, and the horn sounded.

"I thought we made a valiant effort down the stretch to try to win the game," McGraw said.

DePaul used a 12-0 run to answer a 7-0 run by Notre Dame. Diggins scored all seven of Notre Dame's points to put the Irish up nine, 58-49, with 6:57 left.

Notre Dame hit DePaul with a 7-0 start to the second half and turned the Blue Demons' 32-26 halftime lead into a one-point Irish lead at 33-32. The Irish kept the pressure on, bolting to a 19-5 run for a 45-37 lead with 13:52 left in the game.

DePaul responded by going to Chester. She scored 10 of DePaul's first 14 points of the second half, including a 3-pointer with 9:34 left to cut Notre Dame's lead to 49-46 with 9:34 left.

After Dierdre Naughton nailed a three to pull DePaul within two, 51-49, Diggins went on her 7-0 run.

Diggins connected on a 12-footer from the left wing as she was knocked down by DePaul's Sam Quigley. Diggins hit the free throw for a three-point play and a 54-49 Irish lead. Diggins went coast-to-coast with a Peters' rebound on the next Irish possession and was fouled. She hit two free throws to put the Irish up 56-49.

Lightning wearing No. 4 struck again, and Diggins swiped the ball and drove in, getting fouled again. Two more swishes, and the Irish were up 58-49 with 6:57 to go.

A critical play came in DePaul's 12-0. After Chester grabbed a rebound on a missed free throw by Anna Martin with the score 58-55, Irish post Becca Bruszewski was called for her fifth foul. Without Bruszewski to guard Chester, the Demons capitalized.

"It was huge that we got a 'W' here going into the Big East Tournament, especially against a great team like Notre Dame," DePaul coach Doug Bruno said.